ARTICLE - DIASPORA INVESTMENTS

INCENTIVE MEASURES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE INVESTMENTS FROM THE DIASPORA
(Haiti Libre) -

A panel discussion on "Incentive measures to facilitate investment from the diaspora" was held Friday, April 20, as part of National Day of the Diaspora. Executives of the Ministries of Tourism, Trade and Industry, Economy and Finance have presented and discussed possibilities, advantages and potentialities of investment in the country.

Ronald Décembre, Acting Director General, of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, argued that the code of law for investments, grants a set of guarantees likely to attract investors, among others: the right to private property; customs advantages on the export of products from agriculture, handicrafts, and domestic industry; tourism and related services; and exemptions on imported equipment for the operation of certain businesses.

For his part, Ulrick Emmanuel Noel, Director of Investments of the Ministry of Tourism, has indicated that there are many opportunities in the tourism sector. In 2011, the Caribbean was visited by 21 million tourists. Haiti received only 300,000, while the Dominican Republic, for the same period, welcomed 4.1 million visitors. To address this imbalance, Mr Noel recommends promoting mountain tourism, and the tourism of events. He invited businessmen to invest in among others: the development and operation of tourist areas; accommodations in urban and rural zones; rentals of vehicles, aircraft, boats, transport services and of excursions by air, sea and land; the restoration and operation of buildings, monuments, and historic sites. "This is an area that has movement. We expect to have 800 additional hotel rooms in the metropolitan area, where about 150 million U.S. dollars are being injected in the construction of hotel infrastructure," indicated Ulrick Emmanuel Noel.

For his part, Pierre André Dunbar, the Director General of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry argued that the institution remains open to people who want information on the mechanisms of investment in Haiti, and encouraged those interested to invest in sectors such as: honey production, animal husbandry, conservation and export of shrimp, fish packaging, and food processing.